First of all, let me say that I am very picky about keyboards. I like a tactile feel and even like a mechanical key-click. This puts me in the minority, I know. Having said that, though, I admit to really liking this Microsoft Office keyboard (for the most part). The alpha section feels really nice. It's high-quality, and even though it's a bit soft for my touch, the keys have a very positive feel to them. I wouldn't call it mushy.

I like the roller bar to the left, which lets you scroll up and down the way a wheel mouse typically does. I also like having "Back" and "Forward" buttons over there on the left side. I haven't gotten the knack for using the "Cut," "Copy," and "Paste" buttons yet, however.

The extra buttons across the top are very handy... especially useful is the "Mail" button, which (on my machine) brings up Outlook Express.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this product. Unlike the other reviewer, however, I have to say I DON'T like the oversized delete key. It makes that whole section of the keyboard feel strange and unnatural to me. (Take a close look at the section of the keyboard where the "Home," "End," and "Page Up" "Page Down" keys are located and you'll see what I'm talking about.) Make sure you are willing to adjust to this before you purchase this keyboard.

Additionally, I would have appreciated some USB ports. A friend of mine got the Microsoft Internet keyboard, and if I had it to do over again, so would I.

Still, if you're heavy into MS Office... this is the one to beat!

I give it 4 stars... not 5, but only because of that "Delete" key weirdness. Overall, it's a dandy!

The keys have a nice soft touch, but that's just the beginning. The best feature is the scroll button on the left. Not only has it sped up my internet surfing, its functionality has proven itself in almost all of my daily computing experience. It has a much looser scroll than I have found in a mouse so one can literally ZIP to the end of any page or document. Additionally, its location is near enough to the CTRL button to press CTRL with your thumb and scroll up and down with your finger, which zooms in and out in many programs.

The cut/copy/paste buttons have proven themselves very helpful. No more accidentally striking CTRL+C when I want to paste something! The application scroll buttons also nicely replace and enhance what I used to use CTRL+TAB to do.

Some reviewers poo-poo the enhanced F key functions. With the latest Intellitype Pro software, I have found that I can customize them very easily and set their functions to the tasks I use most frequently. (The defaults, however, were nicely chosen and I have found rare occasion to change them.) I am constantly opening, closing, and saving documents. I can now do this quickly without moving my mouse. Most of the button also work in non-Microsoft programs as well.

Contrary to others, I have not found that the enlarged delete button to be a problem. In fact, I enjoy the absence of the Insert button that I erroneously frequented prior to using the Office Keyboard.

Although this review has been overwhelmingly positive, I do not mean to presume that everyone will love this keyboard as soon as they take it out of the box. I am very picky about keyboards and usually get attached to ones I've used for a long time-vocational hazard, I guess. But I liked the philosophy of this keyboard, and although it took a while for me to get used to utilizing my new keyboard to its fullest, within two weeks of daily use this keyboard's functionality revolutionized my computing experience. This one is a keeper.

Based on the above sentence, you can imagine, how painful it is for me to give Microsoft a high rating and praise their innovation, but they truly deserve it with the Office Keyboard.
It is appropriate that Microsoft is the most innovative in those markets in which they face heavy competition. They were the first company to come out with the optical mouse (although Logitech quickly one upped them with a wireless optical mouse), and the first to add new features to the boring old keyboard.

The Office Keyboard won't be for everyone, and will be less useful if you don't use Microsoft Office. However, it has some great new features that will be useful to anyone, be it in the office or at home.

The keyboard is organized into three sections: 1) a traditional keyboard layout in the center, function buttons across the top, and navigation buttons on the left.

The main keyboard is the standard 101-key device with one noticeable change. The entire top row of keys has been remapped by Microsoft. This includes F1-F12, the ever popular Scroll Lock, and the Print Screen button. They concluded that no one ever uses the function keys that often, so replaced them with Microsoft Office functions. This makes a great deal of sense for F3-F12, which the average user has no use for, and Microsoft has wisely kept the F1 key as "Help", which leaves F2, in my opinion, as the big troublemaker. Frequent Excel users will have gotten used to using F2 for in cell editing, but now that key goes to the "Office Home" web page. However, most of the changes are refreshing, and for programmers (and Excel Macro wizards), the addition of "(", ")", and "=" above the Number pad is a welcome addition.

The top of the keyboard includes some convenient shortcuts, the majority of which you most likely won't use, and are ready to be "remapped". Microsoft allows you to take most of the custom keys on the keyboard and set them to any application or one of many pre-defined functions. However, it is very nice to be able to open the Calculator, Explorer, and Outlook with a touch of a button. You can also control your computer's volume and enter "Suspend" mode from the same row of keys.

The biggest improvement is that navigation area to the left of the main keyboard. Capitalizing on the scrolling mouse idea, Microsoft has added a scroll wheel about an inch in width to the direct left of the "Tab" key. This is a great way to scroll through a web page, and is much faster instead of using the mouse scroll button when you are typing. Additionally, the navigation area allows you to move backwards and forwards in web pages, switch between all open applications, and cut, copy, or paste a selection.

All in all this is a terrific keyboard, much as it pains me to admit it. :) However, it is the perfect testimonial for Microsoft's lack of innovation; they are at their best when they face competition. The one weakness that I would give this keyboard, is the bias toward Microsoft functionality (surprise!). Do I really care about visiting the Office Home page? Probably not, so Microsoft does need to work on making the assignment of keys more customizable. If there was also a LCD display with the new function of a remapped key that would also be helpful, as visitors to your computer are going to wonder why F1 does open "Help" as it says on the key, if you remapped the button.

1. The power users dislike the new Function keys. I never used the standard Function keys but find the enhanced keys are quite useful.
2. I find the re-arrangement of the control keys similarly useful, especially the larger delete key.
3. There are more advanced pure Internet keyboards out there, but the pre-programed Internet keys are actually useful and more than adequate for my needs.
4. Great feeling keyboard! This is subjective of course, but this keyboard does not have the ultra-light ... feel so common even in [other] keyboards. The keys feel just right, not too soft and with a nice positive feedback.

5. The Office hot keys are wonderful, instantly opening and switching between the programs I use most. And it includes keys to cut, paste, etc as well. This keyboard was designed for business use and there is no match for it on the market.

This keyboard seems to be a love it or hate it item. I understand that power users set in their ways will not like it. But for the rest of us, this is a truly outstanding keyboard. It is specifically designed for Office users and it does what it is designed to do. There are many business users out there that can benefit from the increased productivity it provides. It is good enough to justify throwing out a still functional but less beneficial keyboard and replace it with this one, even in a time of cost cutting. I vote with my money and I will be purchasing more of the Microsoft Office keyboards for my employer.

Thankfully, I haven't had any regrets since I did. Once I finally remembered to use the side panel regularly, I got a bit addicted to its convenience; the scrolling wheel is really, really nice, as are the cut, copy and paste buttons. I don't tend to use the application tabber very often, because I'm too attuned to Alt-Tab, but every now and then it's handy, too. I rarely use the back and forward keys, largely because I forget about them, but sometimes I find them useful, too.

It's a relatively quiet keyboard, which is very nice, and it has good tactile feedback - perhaps a bit on the soft side, but I can type almost as fast on this board as on an ergo board. It feels like a quality keyboard, and not a cheap one. The built-in wrist rest is a notable feature, though I'm not entirely convinced that I like it - it makes the board a *lot* larger, and prevents the use of another wrist rest, such as a gel pad (which I prefer.) Also, it doesn't come up high enough to be of use during actual typing, but when my hands come to a rest, it keeps my wrists from unnaturally flexing.

I like the larger delete key in the grouping just to the right of the main keys - it's easier to find quickly, and I seldom used the "insert" key that it displaced. The cord is of adequate length to put on one's lap, which is very nice. It's too bad they don't use the same length for their mousing products, alas.

I have a couple of gripes about this device, though; first and foremost, it's not an "ergo" split keyboard, which is by far my preference. The standard, non-split keyboard design just forces my wrists into a slightly unnatural angle, and wears on me a bit.
Also, the F-lock is automatically disabled upon reboot, which means that all of the function keys revert to their "new and improved" options, such as "task pane," "new," "open," "close," et cetera. It seems to me that MS got this backwards, and that the default should be the standard key functions. Further, I'm sure many people find oodles of use from the new and improved functions of these keys, but personally, I've used them less than a dozen times in the five or so months I've had the product; I find it much more efficient to hit the keyboard shortcut than to take one hand and reach up to the function key row.

Likewise, I seldom use any of the top row keys at all, apart from the volume controls; I have little use for Office at home, but I'm sure those folks at work would use these more often. One helpful bit about the top row keys is that nearly all of them are able to be programmed to bring up whatever you'd like them to bring up. Since this is an MS product, I fully expected the "Web/Home" key to be stuck with Internet Explorer, the "Mail" key to bring up Outlook, and so forth. It almost, *almost*, gives me hope.

I really have to hand it to Microsoft's hardware department; they seem to have their stuff together. It's truly unfortunate that they have to make themselves, y'know, 99% evil through their software and marketing divisions.

So, to sum up a perhaps overly-long review, GREAT KEYBOARD.